Mathnet was a segment on the children's television show "Square One Television", where police mathematicians solved crimes and other mysteries by math. This comic plays on that by implying that Mathnet was a real department of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and, when the show was cancelled, the department was shut down, forcing the mathematicians to become regular detectives.

Here, George Frankly, one of the two lead detectives on the show, tries to glean some sort of mathematical meaning out of the murders scene looking for mathematical patterns. His fellow officer, knowing him, tries to tell him off by saying that it is just two dead bodies. But this only makes George state that "two" is the third Fibonacci number. These are a set of numbers where the generators are the two first ones and, after that each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8... (making 2 the third number). Since most of the small numbers are in the Fibonacci sequence, the fact that the number of bodies is one of these numbers is not the least interesting. Again his fellow officer tries to shut him down, and not continue this unhelpful line of thought.

The title text shows that this did not help since George now thinks he can see a Mandelbrot set. But again his fellow officer tries to explain that this is only something he imagines seeing in the blood spatters from the victims. The Mandelbrot set is a formula used to create certain kinds of fractals that you might imagine seeing in the something like blood spatters. The last word Golly is written after the other officers sentence. It may by unclear who of the two uses this version of Gosh as an exclamation, but it is probably George's exclamation because he just realized he is seeing blood spatters - something he probably never did before on the children show. Golly also is an application for simulating Conway's Game of Life and other cellular automata.

The second comic in a row (and third in 16 comics) where a man is drawn with hair only on the sides of his head.

[A crime scene is surrounded by tape wound around several pins four of which are inside this panel. A large black pool is on the ground, with splashes around it, and a hammer lying in one of these splashes. Two people are standing outside the tape; a police officer with a peaked cap with a white emblem is standing closest and to his left is a man with male pattern baldness, who we learn is called George.]

Policeman: Looks like a murder-suicide.

George: Any interesting mathematical patterns?

Policeman: No, George, just two dead bodies and a lot of blood.

George: Two... That's the third Fibonacci number!

Policeman: Not now, George.

[Caption below the frame:]

When Mathnet shut down, the officers had trouble reintegrating into the regular L.A.P.D.

Discussion

That officer is a fool. I'd say it'd be much more likely to relate to the first prime number (assuming you ignore 1, as apparently you're supposed to) than the third Fibonacci one, barring any prior incidents that might or might not be attributed to the same killer. Of course, we'd perhaps have to wait until three crime-scenes later to work out which of these patterns our Malevolently Mathematical Mastermind of Murder has memetically manipulated for us... Holy Torii, Batman! (And no wonder the policemen like both donuts and coffee cups... They're the same...) 178.105.100.250 00:20, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

The first prime number is -1!!! 141.101.104.20 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

" a man (presumably a former Mathnet member" - Not just anyone, the officer calls him George. George Frankly was the main character on the show. Just putting it out there. --Alcatraz ii (talk) 22:43, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

You know, this being a wiki and all, you could have added that yourself. Never mind, I've done it for you. 71.201.53.130 20:42, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

The original Fibonacci problem was formulated about the count of multiplying pairs of rabbits, starting with one pair. So 2 is definitely the 3rd number, not 4th, in that formulation. 108.162.246.5 22:21, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

off topic:i think this is a homage to this show 103.22.200.222 09:04, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

I am unsure, but could the use of the word 'Golly' in the title text be a reference to the popular program to run Conway's game of life which goes by the same name? 141.101.99.105 16:53, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

There was a week-long series of Mathnet wherein the Fibonacci series was the focus and a recurring theme, including columns of tiles and artwork, and a parrot who'd call out "Eureka!" The mystery was of the "I inherited a clue about a key..." type. 108.162.216.163 13:46, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

The man with the hair around his neck

The man has male pattern baldness. It is not around his neck. Lackadaisical (talk) 02:56, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

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